NJ Day 3 - Monumental Works of Human Creativity: Railroads, Sculptures, and Meatloaf
This morning I went to Cloveberry in Sparta for Coffee. It seemed very similar to Greene's Beans but while Cloveberry's name wasn't as good, their coffee was a bit better and cheaper. Also it's across the street was the fanciest comic book store I'd ever seen.
The first stop of the day was Northlandz, home of the world's largest model train set. I could not have possibly imagined how big it would actually be. It was multistoried and fully functional, with dozens of trains running through. My favorite part was that it wasn't just a railroad but a whole world, with recurring characters (a wealthy entrepreneur named Grandma was a big player), story lines and connections between neighborhoods. It was just astounding
Along the path where you look at train set, there were vintage toys and forms of entertainment. I got really excited by seeing a signedPee Wee Herman doll. The whole place seemed in keeping with the spirit of uninhibited creativity and innerchildhood that Pee Wee always brought to his show.
The creativity continued at Grounds for Sculpture, a park and outdoor sculpture founded by artist, Seward Johnson. I also couldn't believe how huge it all was. There was all manner of sculpture from the abstract to the alarmingly life-like to the absolutely massive. The grounds are really cleverly designed and their are all kinds of nooks and crannies where different works of art are tucked away,
The only downside of the sculpture park was that some of the sculptures were so lifelike that you begin to question what's real and what isn't spiraling into existential panic.
For dinner I went to what is supposedly the best diner in the country, Tops Diner. I ordered a nutella milkshake, and their famous meatloaf. The loaf came with veggies, mashed potatoes, and was doused in mushroom gravy. Everything was divine. The mashed potatoes and gravy were my personal favorite part, the potatoes were light and fluffy and the gravy was loaded with flavor. I'll say it was on the pricey side but if you count it as both lunch, dinner, and dessert like I did (and the portions are so big that that might be the best way of doing it), it's pretty reasonable.
The open mic was at the Comedy Cove in Springfield. It was a little bit rougher content wise, but everyone was still very supportive.
My favorite comic of the night was Franco Danger. He did some really smart social satire including two of my favorite bits of the night. One was about the KKK hosting auditions like the Voice, and the other was about evening out racism by having allowing Africa to steal and enslave white people for a while. I'm almost certainly not doing the bits justice in writing, but he had a really confident delivery and took bits into unexpected areas.
My favorite joke of the night was an extended bit by a guy named John Mags (could have been sean sorry if missed that) about sending dick pics in the wild west but I can't transcribe all of it, so here was a solid one liner from a high school senior named Ryan Bacardi: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world look like pirates"
The fact that a high school senior could go up at all was pretty cool. He brought his mom with him, and I really enjoyed watching her reactions to everything that happened. She seemed like a really good sport, and actually went along with some pretty raunchy bits (though she definitely cringed at others) In general the people there who weren't comics were pretty young and I think they were all friends of one younger comic, but they brought a good energy.
I'd say politically it was hard to nail down the room, as they seemed very anti-trump but also pretty anti-liberal at the same time, though honestly that probably summarizes a lot of people's feelings right now. Comics were very much against the idea of being PC, and for the most part they pulled it off, but there were some moments of what I would consider tone deafness. One white comic said "n*gger", not hatefully but just quoting something, but the room kinda tensed up. You really have to be sensitive with that especially in a pretty diverse room. Again it's not like there are no instances where it could be okay to say if you do it in a way that's sensitive, clever, and funny but this wasn't it. I heard one of the black comics kinda pull him over and very politely say similar things where it wasn't accusatory but just coming from a place of "Hey that word still brings up a lot of things for a lot of people".
Actually that was probably the thing that made me happiest about this mic was that after it was over most of the comics just hung around and had a kinda impromptu workshop, where the more experienced comics offered thoughtful criticisms for the younger guys. The advice given was all solid, and it was cool to see other comics building each other up. Plus there was lots of just sharing favorite jokes from pros, and generally goofing around making it a really fun end to the night.
My own set did well, but I think i figured out the problem with the making fun of white supremacist bit and it's that the jokes are fine individually but there's too many of them on the same subject so if the audience isn't down for that I should just stop after whichever joke gets a big laugh and transition to a new bit.
Favorite Random Sightings: Birds by Joe; Interior Motives; Miles of Smiles; Stinky's Septic Tank Repair; A giant billboard saying "LUST WILL DRAG YOU DOWN TO HELL"; my gps telling me stay right to go left because NJ highways are baffling
Regional Observation: I feel like the stereotype about New Jersey is everyone being kind of hot-tempered, but, and Maybe I've just been lucky so far, everyone I've encountered has been super friendly. Especially at diners. Maybe it's a New Jersey thing, or maybe it's a diner thing.
Albums Listened To; Aquemini by Outkast (picked it up cheap so recently so hence the out of order listen); The Definitive Soul Collection: Best of Otis Redding; Destively Bonnaroo by Dr. John; Devil's Night Out by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones; Devin's Mix (my sister's friend Devin made a mix CD featuring They Might Be Giants, the Violet Femmes, Queen, and Ralph Stanley) Dilaudid by the Mountain Goats (just dilaudid and Collapsing Stars); Dinosaur Sounds by Catch 22 (just Good Times)
People's Favorite Jokes:
Why are men's rooms always on the left? Because women are always right
"You don't stop playing with trains because you get too old, you get too old because you stop playing with trains"- ancient Roman Proverb ("it's a joke because the Romans didn't have trains" the woman working the front of Northlandz very sweetly explained)
Song of the Day:
